FINA Day 4 Results – Russia wins gold to revalidate the title in the men’s 4x50m free relay in 1:24.32 – the Europeans have the global mark in this event since Doha 2014 in 1:22.60

Competing with Aleksei Brianskii, Nikita Lobintsev, Aleksandr Popkov and Vladimir Morozov, the Russians were fourth with 50m to go, but a “turbo” last leg (20.71) from Morozov solved the situation in their favour. As in Doha 2014, USA earned silver in 1:24.47, with the fastest anchor leg of the field for Tom Shields in 20.58. Japan got the bronze in 1:24.51.

In the women’s 50m fly, Jeanette Ottesen (DEN), the second fastest of the semis, finally got the gold that she was chasing from 2010. On that edition of the Championships, in Dubai (UAE), she was third; then came another bronze in 2012 and a silver in 2014. In Windsor, the Danish star perfectly controlled operations and touched home in 24.92. Ottesen is a successful athlete in this competition, with this victory being her 11th medal at FINA World Swimming Championships (25m). The minor medals went to Kelsi Worrell (USA, 25.27) and Rikako Ikee (JPN, 25.32).

One of the revelations at the 2015 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships, US Michael Andrew (17 years old), won the men’s 100m IM final in 51.84, getting his first achievement at this level. World Record holder Vladimir Morozov, certainly feeling the tiring effect of the winning Russian relay some minutes before, finished in sixth (52.83), very distant of his global mark of 50.30. The two Japanese representatives in the decisive race, Daiya Seto (52.01) and Shinri Shioura (52.17) completed the podium.

Marco Koch went through a visible transformation. He got rid of 13kg during the autumn and the lean German clinched clean wins both in the 100m and the 200m breaststroke here in Windsor, leaving the Rio memories behind. The world has witnessed a similar story featuring a German breaststroker some ten years ago. In fact, Mark Warnecke has his share in Koch’s new rise.

Koch arrived to Rio as the reigning World Champion who took over the reign from Olympic title-holder Daniel Gyurta (HUN) in Kazan. However, his road to Rio looked a bit shaky, he couldn’t come up with a convincing performance at the Europeans in May in London and at the Olympics he was unable to deliver his usual performance and finished 7th.

“No, I don’t consider it a failure” he insisted when we met him in the iZone, a new feature in the FINA press operations here in Windsor. “I gave my best, it was a good swim, my maximum on the given day, enough for the place I clinched and that’s all.”

Some would see it as a failure but Marco didn’t even mention this word. “I came over it pretty easily, as I felt I was well prepared and I as I told you, I left everything in the pool that evening.”

What came next – was something new. “I knew I wanted to change something though, so I turned to Mark Warnecke, our first world champion in the 50m breaststroke who advised me to run a strict diet as a beginning.”